Panzerkeil is intended to cover all the non-aviation military things that interest me. Aviation topics are dealt with in Sturmvogel. These are mostly going to be related to the Second World War, but some will cover more modern topics. This is not the place for information on the specifications for German AFVs or the like. The links section has a couple of such sites listed.

Latest changes

A couple of requests have convinced me that I should let people know what the latest changes are since there's otherwise no way to tell without asking me.

• Orders of battle and unit histories. I've done a lot of research into WW 2 orders of battle for the Europa series of wargames. I'm primarily a aviation specialist, but I'm also interested in tanks and have even ventured into a minor amount of naval history. I'll be posting some of this information as I find the time. Much of it will be oriented towards Europa, but ordinary readers shouldn't have any problems. Additional information is always welcome, but please cite your sources.
  • A detailed Order of Battle for the Germans at Kursk, complete with AFV totals for II. SS-Panzerkorps on 4 July.
  • Tank strengths on 1 July for all units involved in Kursk.
  • A detailed Order of Battle for the Germans on the eve of Barbarossa. If not quite complete in that it doesn't cover all the various engineer or security troops, it's quite comprehensive enough for most purposes.
  • Tiger Battalions of the Wehrmacht.
  • Obscure Combat Formations of the SS. A collaboration between Jim Broshot and myself to provide a little background to some of those strange units in SS service.
  • Independent Combat Formations of the Heer. A similiar collaboration between Jim Broshot and myself to give a little history behind some of those units.
  • The War Diary of the German 14th Army at Anzio, from January 22 to 31 May 1944. In Office 2001 format.
• The minor Axis powers at war.
  • Finland
  • Hungary
    • The Hungarian 2. Army in Russia: Structure and Equipment, Summer '42.
    • Specifications and production numbers for Hungarian-built AFVs.
    • A brief account of the Hungarian forces committed to Barbarossa with organizational data.
  • Romania
    • Greg Kelley's updated list of every AFV used by Romania as slightly amended by myself. Includes specifications and information on how Romania obtained them.
  • Slovakia
    • Notes on AFVs used by Slovakia and their origin.
  • German exports of war material to her allies. So far this only covers Czech-built AFVs.
• Operational Data
• Soviet Losses to German AT Weapons, by Caliber. An interesting Soviet account of their losses to German AT weapons.
• Battle Histories
  • David Glantz's account of the 1942 Battle of Rzhev, Zhukov's greatest defeat.
• The military aspects of the Munich Crisis is one area that has fascinated me for quite a while now and I've put together some material. I hope to include information about the relative military strengths in the future, but now all I have is some stuff on the Czech fortifications and on the aerial balance between Germany on one side and the Czechs and their putative allies.
• Wartime economics. As a wargamer I've always been curious how the raw numbers of weapons translated into various units and, more importantly, what the real limits on substitution of one type for another were. One example would be if the Germans were to build more tanks in exchange for cancellation of the Bismark and Tirpitz. Other areas of interest emerged as I delved more deeply into this seriously unexamined field such as the economic geography of the combatants, resource and manpower allocations, etc.
• Wargaming. I've been a wargamer since 1977 though I pretty much only play the Europa series nowadays. I plan on posting some of my Europa material here since a number of people cannot accept attached files and have expressed interest in getting draft material.
  • Some thoughts on the roles of officers and NCOs by Jim O'Neill.
• Military Humor. I should explain that the Army is full of rivalries, especially within each branch. Thus 13Bs crack on 13Fs, or try to and the foxes respond in kind, but with better aim and more effect. This usually persists until someone from another branch starts making snide comments upon which all rally together to hurl invective at the outsider. Much of this humor is crude, obscene, and homophobic. I make no apologies and will not respond to condemnatory comments. That's just the way the Army is. If you enjoy this material please feel free to submit more, I believe in offending everybody and anybody so as to avoid charges of discrimination. As an aside I'm a 13F with a secondary of 19D, just so that my own biases are known.
  I've recently seen some artwork stating that "artillery is present on the battlefield merely to lend some class to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl". This is incorrect. Rather it is the cavalry whose aristocratic heritage can hardly be denied (can you say Lord Cardigan and the Charge of the Light Brigade?) to whom this is attributed. In comparison artillery were more the middle-class trademen of war with the peasants serving as infantrymen.
  • Murphy's Laws of Combat
  • You Are a Tanker If:
  • Letter from a Cannon-cocker
  • Forward Observer's Lament
  • Image of Rank A rather jaundiced view of officers that had to be written by an NCO.
  • Classic officer evaluation report comments.
  • How different branches of the US military would handle an encounter with a snake.
  • Scurrilous Cartoons Some sniping within the FA community.

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• AFV Photos. Photos of AFVs I've taken over the years. Mostly modern NATO vehicles from when I was on active duty in the Eighties. Only some shots of French AFVs uploaded so far.

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• Links. Other sites of I've found of interest.

Go to Sturmvogel: Axis and Neutral European Air Forces during the Second World War

In case you were wondering, Panzerkeil is German for a tank wedge, a V-shaped tactical formation.